


Into the Light of the Sun

by TheDoctorIsIcecube



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-22
Updated: 2016-10-25
Packaged: 2018-08-24 01:12:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 12,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8350516
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDoctorIsIcecube/pseuds/TheDoctorIsIcecube
Summary: When Sumeragi was killed and Corrin stolen, Hoshido retaliated immediately. Broken and defeated, the royal family is scattered across the lands of Nohr, seeing each other only rarely. But when Leo, dismissed and sent to train to be a scholar, is chosen by the divine tome Brynhildr, he is brought to Hoshido.Here, he has to live with the royal family who took everything from him, knowingly or not. Here, he has Takumi.





	1. Into Obscurity

When Nohr fell, Ryoma was on the verge of turning thirteen. He remembered the day that King Garon died, he remembered the buildings in flames and what little he saw of a war he was allowed no part in. All he knew was that now, in addition to being High Prince of Hoshido, he would soon have other duties, too- duties to the country that had been his enemy until recently.

Thirteen years old, and his father had been dead for two years. The war had been hard on Hoshido, unexpected and fought during two typically harsh Nohrian winters. Many lives had been lost, but Nohr had suffered far greater losses. So great, in fact, that Nohr collapsed in on itself just as Hoshido had depleted its forces.

Ryoma coped well with the loss of everything, though. He had been training to be king since he was a child, and he still had Mikoto to guide him. She made for a very good teacher, and a very good queen, so it wasn't long before more peaceful arrangements were starting to be made. Arrangements with the horrifically corrupt court involving territorial arrangements, supplies, and what to do about the masses whose revolt had brought down a military nation that was as old as the stories of the dragons. Ryoma hoped that they wouldn't have to crush the rebellion, because if the court of Nohr was brought down then that could only do good for the broken country.

Yukimura said that it wasn't as simple as force or no force in fixing Nohr, and they would have to go through a long, complicated process which would have to involve the young crown prince of Nohr, Xander. The boy had been hidden away towards the end of the war, apparently with many other illegitimate heirs to the throne, and all of them had yet to be found. 

There were Hoshidan soldiers out searching for the missing royal children, hunting for any trace of the bloodline of Garon that could be used to rekindle the fighting spirit of the people of Nohr. The children wouldn't be harmed, simply reeducated, helped to understand that the fighting between Nohr and Hoshido was no longer necessary. Ryoma was worried for them. Hoshido was full of hatred for Nohr, especially Garon, and he didn't doubt that the children would be treated badly.

-

Leo woke to someone tapping on the door of the library. He'd done it again, apparently. Xander would be annoyed at him for locking himself in and then falling asleep. And then Xander would get sad about how they were locked in generally because of the Hoshidan forces trying to get into the gates. They'd never get through, of course, but Leo knew that surrender was coming. The Northern Fortress was built for siege, but Xander didn't want to sit through a siege. They hadn't had news from Father for months. 

He went to the door and opened it, having to stretch up to reach the handle. This whole stupid place was built for adults. "What is it?" Just as he'd thought, Xander was outside the door, except he looked rather worried. "What?" 

"Pack your bags," Xander said. "Quickly."

"Xander, what's going on?" Elise was in his arms, Leo noted, and that never posed anything good. Xander didn't look after Elise in the mornings, Camilla did.

"The Hoshidans broke through the outer gate," he said. Leo's heart jumped to his throat. The Hoshidans had broken through? They were coming here, coming to kill them all. There would be no mercy from those people who dwelt in the sun, never thinking to share their light with the less fortunate. They thought that Nohrians were monsters. They'd kill them all. "They'll be inside within the hour, I expect."

"But what about Windmire?" What about Father, what about all the people here whose mothers were still alive, what about that princess who had been left behind, Azura? Were they all dead now? 

"I don't know what's happened to Windmire..." Xander was frowning, in that strange way he had that made him look like Father. "But you need to pack your bags, Leo, come on. We need to be ready when they come, just in case they decide to be merciful to us."

"They won't kill Elise, will they?" He asked. He could bite his tongue and accept that he would die here today. He knew that Xander would die. Maybe they would take Camilla and do unspeakable things to her, he wouldn't put it past them. But surely, surely they couldn't hurt Elise. She was so young, she was so innocent, there was no way that anyone would hurt her. It would be madness to think that someone as tiny as Elise could hurt anyone.

"Hopefully, they won't kill any of us." That meant that they would all die, then, even Elise. He started to cry.

"Leo...calm down, pack your bag." Xander put a hand on his shoulder and steered him out of the library and towards his room. "We're going to be fine." He didn't sound too sure about that, which just scared Leo even more. Xander was never unsure, he was always in charge and he knew what was happening.

"Can I say goodbye to Elise when I'm done, though?" He couldn't stop crying. He knew it was shameful, he knew Xander had told him to stop and think about it, to be optimistic. He knew that when other people cried, Elise usually started crying, but he couldn't stop. He didn't want to die.

"Leo, it's going to be alright. You don't need to say goodbye to anyone." Xander still didn't sound sure, he sounded upset, which just made Leo cry even harder. And that set Elise off too, a few sniffles turning into loud wailing from where she rested in Xander's arms. "Come on, Leo." Xander adjusted Elise so she was balanced in one of his arms, and he took Leo's hand in his left. "I'll help you pack, and then we can go and sit in the gardens with Camilla." 

Leo didn't see that he had much choice in the matter, so he followed Xander, and let his older brother help him pack, and then he followed Xander again out to the gardens, still sniffling. This wasn't fair. He didn't want to die. He'd never really imagined having a long, happy life or anything, the conflict within the courts was far too great for that, but he'd hoped that he would go out in a way that made him seem...more important than he was. Dying at the hands of Hoshidan soldiers, he'd just be another Nohrian, inconsequential and just in the way of the Hoshidan quest for dominance over an already dying country. 

Camilla was waiting in the gardens, just as Xander had said she would be, and she looked worried, too. She took Elise out of Xander's arms, soothing the crying child in just a few moments. She held her arm out for Leo, too, but he just stayed where he was, still with tears in his eyes. "It's okay to be scared, Leo," she said, her eyes still fixed on Elise.

"I don't w-want to die..." Leo internally chided himself for being weak and stuttering. He knew from months of elocution lessons that he should be stronger than this. He shouldn't let nervousness control his outwards appearance, but he was about to die and he couldn't just let that go. He couldn't ignore the last few hours of his life for the sake of his appearance.

"Oh Leo, honey, you aren't going to die." Camilla stepped forward and embraced him, but she still didn't sound SURE, no one sounded sure and that meant that their future was entirely uncertain and they were probably going to die anyway. He didn't want to die, but the Hoshidan forces would find them any minute now and then they'd all be dead.

There was a crash outside, and the sound of loud voices somewhere beyond the inner courtyard of the fortress. Previously, there had been arrows coming into here, but Xander said that they had stopped as soon as they broke through the gates. Leo burst into a fresh wave of tears at the sound, and Xander stood up. "I'm going to meet them."

"No!" Leo couldn't help himself, he ran forward and clung to his older brother's leg. Xander just gently shook him off, insisting that he would be alright, and then bent to kiss Leo on the forehead before striding off and looking, once again, an awful lot like Father. Leo hoped desperately that this wouldn't be the last time he saw his brother. Xander didn't deserve to die. "I want to come with you!" He called desperately. Xander was going to face death like the man he was, and if Leo could ever be anything like him then he could die proud, if not happy. Happy was an impossibility, but he could die proud of his actions, and maybe Xander would be proud of him too.

"Leo, no, stay here with Elise and I." Camilla reached out to take his arm, but Leo shook her off and ran after his brother. At least if he stayed with Xander, he could be proud. His brother was more than twice his age, but Leo would stand with him nonetheless.

He reached the front hallway just as Xander slowed to a stop. His brother glanced back, horror crossing his face when he saw Leo coming after him. "Leo, no, go back!" But it was much too late to go back now, as the Hoshidan troops started to pour in through the front doors. They were grimy, covered in dust and dirt and sweat. They looked undignified and barbaric, and it gave Leo a strong sense of satisfaction that even he could look more composed than them.

Leo ran to his brother's side, reaching up to hold his hand. He was determined, utterly determined to stand firm against whatever was going to be coming at them. He deserved to live, and so did Xander, but if he had to die...there were worse ways to do it.

"I am Xander." It was spoken without a single inch of shaking in his voice. Leo was in awe. "Crown prince of Nohr. There are none in this fortress but children and servants, and only I hold any price on my head."

The forces that had been pouring into the fortress slowed and stopped, forming a semicircle around Leo and Xander and pointing swords at the two of them. One man stepped forward, conspicuously swordless, and narrowed his eyes at the two of them. "You say you are the crown prince? Who is this boy with you?"

"This is Leo, one of my half brothers." As he said it, Xander squeezed Leo's hand gently. Leo looked up at him and smiled. "He said that he would not let me come here to die alone."

"We do not want you dead," the commander said, giving a gesture to the soldiers around him. They lowered their weapons, and Leo felt like crying again from relief. He wouldn't, though. Not in front of these Hoshidans. They didn't deserve to see him cry. "We are under orders to return all the Nohrians we found here to Windmire to see our lady, the Queen Mikoto."

"See, Leo?" Xander's smile was warm and Leo felt a strange sort of pride in the way that Xander spoke to him before the Hoshidan commander. "Hoshido has decided that they are not of the heart to kill defenceless children." Leo decided not to be smart and point out that Camilla had an axe up in her bedroom which she kept at her bedside so she could protect Elise, and he didn't mention that Xander had been training with a sword for weeks, or that he himself practised his magic day in and day out. Mentioning that would put them in danger, so he kept his lips tightly shut.

"Indeed we do not. If you would be so kind, crown prince, as to gather up all of the children in the castle, that would be very much appreciated. I do not want to have to command my men to search the castle..." The Hoshidan commander stood up very straight, looking firmly at Xander, but Leo still felt like Xander held more power than he did.

"I will do so. Leo, could you go and get Camilla?" Leo nodded, not upset to be able to turn his back on the Hoshidan soldiers and run away. They were scary. "I have a little sister who is still a baby, you see," he heard Xander explain, "and Camilla and myself look after her."

Leo didn't hear the commander's response, but he ran off back to the gardens. Elise was crying again, and Camilla was trying to soothe her. She looked up as Leo approached, questions written all over her face. "Xander's fine," Leo said first, and Camilla visibly relaxed. "He told me to come and bring you to him."

"Of course," she said. "Do you want to take Elise for a moment? You always manage to calm her down when she's in the foulest of moods." He smiled and nodded, taking her in his arms. She was getting quite big now, big enough that soon she would be walking around on her own and starting to form words, unless she was like Leo and started late.

Camilla put a hand on his shoulders as they walked, keeping him protectively close to her. The soldiers in the hallway had relaxed a little by the time they got back, although they tensed again as the three approached. 

"Don't worry," Xander assured them. "This is just Camilla and Elise, they don't mean any harm." Leo almost laughed at the prospect that Elise, tiny Elise, could ever do anyone harm. Camilla probably meant the Hoshidans harm if they wanted to break up the little family she had created, honestly. If Leo had possessed the power, he would definitely hurt Hoshidans. They had taken everything away from them, and now they wanted to take more.

He didn't know at the time, but they would proceed to take everything they had. Elise, sent away to a far flung abbey in eastern Nohr, Xander kept in Krakenberg with no hope of freedom from Hoshidans, Camilla to Cheve, and Leo to be locked away in the great libraries of Macarath.

He didn't know at the time, but he'd wish he had many times in the future. If he'd known, he would have attacked the Hoshidans there and then.


	2. Out of Dust

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leo finally gets to see his siblings again for Xander's birthday.

Leo hadn't seen his siblings for a year. To be fair, the year had passed rather quickly. He'd had a lot of studying to do. Despite him barely being nine years of age, the scholars of Macarath had set him project after project, a seemingly endless list of research tasks that filled every moment of his free time. He only ever got a chance to think about his siblings at night, in the brief few minutes before his exhaustion overtook him. But for the past few days, he'd been so excited that he could barely concentrate on his research, because he was going to see his siblings again.

He'd suffered for it, too. The scholars were liberal about their beatings, unafraid to make him feel their discontent when he failed to complete tasks to their standard. At first, he'd tried to tell them that his half brother was the crown prince and they couldn't do this to him, but they hadn't been interested in anything except whether he'd done his work or not. He loved studying, really, and he couldn't wait to be a real scholar, but at the moment it was painful to try.

But the days passed, as days had a tendency to do, and soon enough he was being bundled into a carriage all by himself and taken off to Krakenburg where Xander was. And where Camilla and Elise would be, too. Elise could probably speak by now, which was a slightly alarming thought. Leo wondered just how much she had grown this year. He wondered just how much older and tireder Xander would look, too. Maybe he would be okay, since it was his birthday. Maybe it would always be like this, just seeing them once a year. Would they be wondering if he had grown up too? He was definitely smarter than he was a year ago, and incredibly exhausted most of the time. He wished he hadn't been forced into it.

He felt like royalty again, sitting in the carriage pulled by a horse with a driver who had been paid specifically to drive him here. It was nice to be out and see things too, he hadn't really realised just how much he missed being outside and seeing things. He walked to the church every week, of course, but that was the same route every week. The sun wasn't shining today, it never really did, but there was a sky filled with light cloud cover. He wondered if Scholar Renvall knew how many okta that covering would reach. Probably. It was nice to see outside and see people and see things. He missed talking to people.

Castle Krakenburg looked different to when he'd last seen it. The colours of Nohr that decorated the outside were joined with the colours of Hoshido, bold red and white meeting gold and purple and black. It was odd to see, unsettling to know that his old home could have changed so much in only a year. He wondered just how different it was inside, too. Maybe the Hoshidans had removed the countless priceless relics and destroyed all the history that the castle held. He knew more of it now than he ever had, and the prospect made him so angry. He would gladly use his newly improved magic skills to rip every last Hoshidan apart if they had destroyed aspects of his beloved home.

Xander was standing out at the front of the castle to greet the carriage, and Leo was not afraid to immediately hug him the moment he stepped from the carriage. He'd missed Xander so much. And if the enthusiastic hug he received in return was any indication, then Xander had very much missed him as well. He'd looked weary whilst waiting for Leo's carriage to pull up, but when Leo looked up at his older brother from amidst their hug, he was smiling broadly. 

"Are Camilla and Elise here yet?" Leo hoped that Xander could hear his question well enough, because he'd gone straight back to hugging Xander and his face was buried in the older prince's stomach.

"Camilla arrived yesterday evening and Elise is set to arrive a little later today," Xander said. "But Leo, I want to hear more about you since we...parted. How have you been? You look dreadfully tired."

"I work hard," he said. It was true, he worked very hard from seven in the morning until late into the night. However long it took him to finish the tasks of the day, usually, so sometimes he only snatched a handful of hours of sleep, especially because he had to share with all the other training scholars. They didn't like him much because he was top of the rankings in every aspect, and they didn't like him to get all the sleep he deserved, especially when they so often missed out. But these were all things he felt he couldn't tell Xander. Xander had to deal with the Hoshidans, so he obviously had it much harder.

"Well, hard work isn't necessarily a bad thing. I have to work very hard as well." Xander reached down and took Leo's hand, leading him inside. "Do you want to come and see Camilla? She's got some interesting stories to tell about the wyverns..."

The afternoon passed with a comfortable level of talk between the three of them. Camilla had a lot of interesting stories to tell about wyverns and how they acted and all the training sessions she'd taken part in. She said she was also taking beginner magic classes so she could eventually become a wyvern knight. There were a few uncomfortable moments when Camilla asked why he looked so tired and wanted to know if the scholars treated him well, but he managed to avoid answering them.

Just when the conversation was starting to dry up, there was word of another carriage arriving outside- Elise. Leo sprung up from his chair, and Camilla and Xander weren't too far behind. Finally, the four of them could all be together again. Just as it used to be when the world was only slightly falling apart.

Elise was with a nun, and she was much bigger than she used to be. She was unsteady on her tiny feet, but she managed to get out of the carriage with help. "Elise!" It was Xander who rushed forward first, and Leo was struck yet again by the thought that Xander really had missed all of them.

Elise jumped up to hug her big brother, and Leo couldn't resist the urge to run and join in on the hug. Camilla wasn't far behind- soon, all four of them were together, clinging to each other and just grinning. It had been far too long since they'd all seen each other. He hadn't been confident that Elise would remember them at all, but now she was here the idea seemed foolish. Of course she remembered, they'd been there for half her life.

"Xan-der," she said carefully, beaming at them all. "Cam-la, Lo!" 

Camilla was the first to gasp delightedly, and sweep Elise up into her arms. "Oh, you can say our names? You're such a clever girl...what else have they been teaching you to say, sweetheart?" 

Leo was intrigued, too. He loved the way Elise tried to say his name, getting it mostly right but not entirely. It was adorable. He loved her, he always had, but this time it came back in full force. It was probably her that he'd missed the most. She'd been there when everything was going wrong, but she'd just carried on as normal, being a baby and crying and pooing and needing to eat. It had been comforting even when it was hard to look after her.

"Hello," Elise said with another bright smile. Leo felt like she was burning away all his sadness. "I'm Elise." She pointed at herself and then curtsied, prompting a fond laugh from Xander.

"Well hello, Elise." Xander bent down to shake her hand as if greeting her for the first time, even though his hand looked to be about three times as big as hers. "It's very nice to meet you." He grinned, and Leo was struck by how much he looked like an older brother and not like a tired prince. Elise really could fix everything.

It was only now that anyone directed their attention to the lady who had come in the carriage with Elise. "She's often a bit shy," the lady said, and Leo looked over to Elise. Somehow, he doubted that. "When we're with people she knows really well, we can't get her to stop talking!"

"Well," Xander said with a smile, "we'll have to get to know her really well, then." Without even hesitating, he lifted Elise into the air and whirled her around. She squealed, laughing at the sensation.

The lady smiled and left them to their little reunion, much to Leo's relief. This was family time, for his family only, and there could be no interruptions from outside sources. The real purpose of their visit- Xander's birthday- seemed to have been forgotten in favour of simply spending time with each other, but honestly, none of them seemed to mind. Xander told them that the reason they were here was because he had been told that he could have one major thing for his birthday. He'd chosen them, and it made Leo so happy that Xander cared that much, cared enough to choose them over anything else. He chose the three of them over all the other children Garon had.

Soon enough, they headed back inside of the castle, and everyone had to tell all of their stories again for Elise, who loved them. She had stories of her own as well, although those were told more through excited hand gestures and the occasional clumsy word.

"She's certainly more verbal than you were at her age," Xander said with a laugh. Leo had heard a fair few times about how, when he was little, Xander and Camilla thought he had something wrong with his head, that one of the many fighting concubines had damaged him at birth. "She's more verbal than you now!"

Leo smiled back at him. In the library, especially during the working hours, they never spoke to one another. This was the most he had spoken in a single afternoon since the last time he was given one of the verbal tests. "There's nothing wrong with appreciating the art of listening," he said.

Xander laughed. "Now, of course, you have quite the vocabulary for a nine year old. All those books have gone to your head, little brother..."

Leo pouted, hoping that he looked indignant but not ridiculous.. "There's nothing wrong with being smart! And learning magic! You have to be smart to use magic."

"I have no talent for magic," Xander said, reaching over to ruffle Leo's hair. "I don't imagine they allow you to swing a sword around in the library, though." Leo shook his head. He hadn't even touched a sword since they'd left the Northern Fortress, but he found that he didn't really miss swordplay. He'd never been much good at it, not nearly as good as Xander.

"Maybe you have no talent for magic because you aren't as smart as Leo," Camilla said, a slight smile on her face. Xander shot her a look, and then laughed. 

"You're probably right, sister. Leo has more brains than the both of us combined, I'd say." Leo couldn't help but blush. He hadn't been angling for compliments at all, he didn't want them to do this. It made him uncomfortable, he was so used to being told he was too young to be smart by all the scholars. Most of them were convinced he was cheating in some way.

"I'm not that smart..." He looked away from both of them as he spoke. If they did this, he wouldn't be able to stand leaving them again.

"Don't be silly, Leo, yes you are." Camilla reached out and wrapped him in a hug, ruffling his blond hair. He'd recently taken to keeping it out of his face with a hairband, which he now had to readjust with a slightly sulky look. "You're so grown up now! I'm sure you put everyone in the library to shame with your intelligence."

"Hmm." Leo just gave a grudging sigh and pulled away from Camilla, refusing to let this conversation go on any longer. He just felt awkward when people complimented him, and he never knew what to say in return.

The day passed happily, as did the next. They had a private gathering on the day before Xander's birthday, accompanied by Xander's two retainers and a couple of Nohrians who Xander had befriended over the year. It was quiet, a nice contrast to the next day, the public celebrations, which came complete with the court of Nohr and the royal family of Hoshido.


	3. Stolen Sunlight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leo goes to Xander's birthday gathering and meets Takumi.

Leo had never seen so many rich people all in one place. At least, not since he was a tiny child who had spent his whole time at fancy parties just clinging to his mother's skirt and hiding under the tables. The ballroom of Castle Krakenburg was decorated lavishly in the colours of Hoshido and Nohr, and the elite of both nations had come together in the same room- the Nohrians looked considerably more tense than the Hoshidans, Leo noticed.

Xander had made sure they all wore clothing that suited their ranks. He was all dressed up in fancy clothes and he had a cape, which Elise took great delight in standing on. Elise was in a very frilly dress, Camilla had been given some ceremonial wyvern rider armour and Leo had been told to suffer through scholar's robes. But then they'd tried to find some and he was still too small to wear any. After some extensive searching, they'd found a set of ceremonial armour that looked like it hadn't been worn in decades, but it was just about small enough for Leo and it was suitable for a magic user like him. Leo felt like he wasn't quite deserving of an outfit like this, but then again...it made him feel grand and important, like the prince that he knew he was. 

Xander warned him that he may be asked a few pointed questions about what he was wearing, but Leo wasn't worried. He was the son of the late King Garon, and even if his father had committed the atrocities he'd heard of, there was no denying his royal lineage. 

The party (was it a party? It felt too formal to call it that) started up properly not too long after the four of them- Elise clinging to Xander's hand and still gleefully stepping on his cape- entered the ballroom. There was a band, a large one, playing music that was just loud enough to make it annoyingly hard to hear anyone speak, and everyone (except Elise) was an awful lot taller than Leo.

"Crown Prince Xander of Nohr and his esteemed guests; Lady Camilla, Lord Leo and Lady Elise," said the man standing by the door, and everyone turned to face them. Well, not him or his sisters, just Xander. Xander told him that everyone wanted to have his favour, because other than the Hoshidans, one day he would be the most powerful man in Nohr. 

People started coming up to talk to Xander, and Leo slipped away off to the side. He'd hang around in a corner, near the table that was thoroughly stocked with an awful lot of food. That way, he could simultaneously eat and avoid getting stepped on by overzealous nobles. He made his way across the ballroom slowly, looking around to see if he could identify anyone. He recognised a few female members of the court, his mother not amongst them any longer. He didn't care. Xander's mother, too, was gone, and had been gone for a long time, but it seemed that Camilla's mother remained. His eyes then scanned the Hoshidan forces, and he could now recognise the uniforms of the samurai, spear fighters and sky knights among them, as well as many other over complicated titles that the Hoshidans gave each other. The ninjas were nowhere to be seen, but that didn't mean they weren't there. He could have recognised Queen Mikoto anywhere, and by her side was a boy who looked much like the late Sumeragi. High Prince Ryoma, then.

Ryoma looked to be maybe a year younger than Xander, but every inch a regal prince nevertheless. Also hovering around Mikoto was a red-haired girl looking faintly angry and very uncomfortable, and there was also a very small girl hiding shyly behind Mikoto. They were presumably Hinoka and Sakura, which just left Prince Takumi. He, however, was nowhere to be seen.

No one tried to stop him on the way to the food table, and Leo gladly took a plate, heaping it with fresh food and well made warm food, all the things that he was never given at the library. If there was anything he missed more than his siblings, it was eating good food. Half the time he had to make his own, and the other half of the time involved food that was badly cooked, or maybe had gone past its best. Sometimes, if he hadn't completed his tasks, he'd be forced to go hungry.

He was halfway through hungrily wolfing down the plate of food when someone cleared their throat right behind him. Leo turned around, letting the forkful of food he'd been about to eat drop back onto his plate. He recognised the boy standing behind him- long, silver hair in a ponytail, and a really rather arrogant expression on his face. Prince Takumi. 

"That doesn't look like a very polite way to eat food, Lord Leo..." The way Takumi said his title made it sound more like an insult than an honorific.

"My apologies, Prince Takumi," Leo said. He would have to watch his tongue around the prince. There was nothing stopping him from saying that he thought Leo was an enemy of Hoshido. People would believe him, too, and Leo knew that he had escaped death the first time. He refused to tempt fate by being rude.

"Hmm. Good." Takumi had a plate of food in his hand, too, and now he turned to sit down next to Leo and start eating. He'd picked up a lot of weird Hoshidan food that Leo hadn't dared try- there seemed to be far too much raw fish involved for his liking. "I suppose Nohrian scum like you aren't brought up to have good manners, so it's hardly your fault."

"By the contrary, I'm training as a scholar," Leo said. He was sure that Hoshido's royal family were well educated, but Prince Takumi seemed like an idiot. Rude, arrogant, brash...he was insufferable and had no sense of the manners that were required of a prince.

"Oh, really? Where are you training?"

"Macarath," Leo said proudly. He may not love it there, but that place had the best library in the kingdom. 

"Hmm. Hoshido's libraries are better." Takumi sound so certain, and Leo wanted to get one of the books he'd brought from his room and hit Takumi over the head with it. He bet Nohrian books hurt more than Hoshidan ones.

"I would love a chance to study in a Hoshidan library," Leo said. He really would. He wanted to see what they wrote about their history, their culture, their past with Nohr. He wanted to know the other side, and he wanted to study their interesting form of calligraphy. He wasn't lying when he said it. "But I doubt I would ever be allowed to until the settlements have been made and I would also have to complete my training first."

"Hoshidan libraries are fantastic," Takumi said, and for the first time in their conversation he sounded eager, not just uptight and arrogant. "They have books on shelves so high even the adults have to use a ladder to get up to them, and they go on for practically miles and miles of books." There was a proper grin on Takumi's face now, one that Leo actually sort of liked to see. It made him wonder if maybe they could be friends, somehow.

"In Macarath, the books are everywhere. All the books from the areas of Nohr that are further east were brought there during the war, so they ran out of space. Now, there are books stacked across the windows and flung across all of the tables." The rooms that the training scholars slept in were also full of books. Their only privacy from each other were the walls of books they built up around their sleeping areas.

"That sounds messy," Takumi said, but he sounded intrigued nonetheless. Leo grinned to himself- maybe he really could have a friend in Takumi. "I think I might have to come and visit your library someday," Takumi mused. "Where do you work? I may even come and see you." 

Leo wanted to laugh. As if he was allowed to see anyone while he worked. Well, maybe he would be allowed to if that someone happened to be the second prince of Hoshido. But he didn't laugh, because Takumi may see that as an insult. "I work in the Great Macarath Library, usually within the history section, but I don't work on Sunday."

"Very well. I may make arrangements to come and visit..." Takumi looked down at his now mostly empty plate of food. "Do you want to dance after I've finished eating? Mother keeps pushing me to ask someone, but there aren't many people my own age...Lady Camilla is scary, and Lady Elise is too small, but you...don't seem too bad, I guess..."

"Of course," Leo said. Xander had instructed him to dance with someone, but he'd imagined that he would be dancing with Camilla, or maybe an older lady who thought he was sweet. "I haven't taken any dancing lessons for a year and a half, though, so I may be a little rusty." Leo wondered why Takumi couldn't ask one of his siblings to dance with him.

"Dancing lessons suck," Takumi said firmly. "You're lucky you don't have to take them." He looked determinedly back down at his food, eating fast, and Leo decided to do the same. It became a bit of a competition to see who could finish first- Leo won, and Takumi just huffed and mumbled something derogatory about Nohrian manners.

At the end of the song after they had both finished eating, Takumi stood up and bowed to Leo in a way that didn't follow Nohrian etiquette. "May I have this dance, Lord Leo?" Takumi grinned at him, and Leo realised that if he accepted, Takumi would be leading the dance. He stayed sat down for a moment, glaring up at the Hoshidan prince, and then reluctantly took Takumi's hand and pulled himself to his feet. Maybe it was better that Takumi was leading, seeing as Leo had been sorely out of practise for a year and a half. 

The song played was fast, faster than Leo had danced in a long time, and he found himself slightly breathless as Takumi whirled him around the floor of the ballroom. Within the first cycle of movements, Leo managed to pick up was going on, and he found from then that it was actually quite fun. Takumi was very slightly shorter than him, but his shoulders were a little wider, a sure sign that Takumi was receiving the nourishment that Leo was not.

It was almost a disappointment when the song came to an end and Takumi led the pair of them back over to a corner. Leo felt slightly dizzy, and both he and Takumi were out of breath and giggling, but it had been fun. Real, actual fun that he was allowed to have. Takumi's ponytail had ended up in a bit of a mess, and he busied himself with fixing it whilst Leo recovered from his dizziness.

"That was fun," he said, grinning at Takumi, who smiled brightly back. "It's been a while since I've done any dancing, and that was a good way to get back into it."

"That's much better than any practise dances Yukimura makes me do, they're always really slow," Takumi said. "Corrin says my normal dancing is too fast and she won't dance with me."

"I don't think you're too fast," Leo said firmly. "I liked your dancing. We could, um, we could dance again a bit later if you wanted." He had vague stirring memories of the fact that it was considered a romantic advance to dance with someone more than once, but that was a load of rubbish in his opinion. He was nine, and Takumi wasn't a princess.

"I'd like to, but maybe later," he said. He was smiling, Leo was smiling, and for a little while, everything was right in the world.

It was a shame that it didn't last, and they only danced together once more that night. And after that, he never saw Prince Takumi again.


	4. From the Dark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leo finds something that turns his life upside down forever.

Leo greatly disliked having to clean out the dusty old storerooms of the library. The dust made his eyes stream and his nose prickle, and it was darker than dark in here. Only the small glow his magic had summoned was lighting the room. He knew he was only in here because he was better than everyone else in the library, because the other scholars were jealous of his intelligence and his flair for magic. That didn't make it any better, though.

He was hungry. He hadn't eaten for at least a day, maybe longer. It was blurring together a lot lately, no matter how hard he tried to keep things straight in his mind. The only way he could ever be sure was that he went to church on every Sunday and once a year he went to see Xander. Except that got messed up at some point too, because of the coronation. Everything was messed up and vaguely uncomfortable- in fact, it was a lot more than just vaguely uncomfortable at the moment, because of all of the gods-damned dust. It was very hard to work in these conditions when he could barely focus on the books he was supposed to be cleaning.

He didn't understand why they'd sent him to clean. No one used these books. No one read them or researched from them, and the room wasn't properly equipped to study in. Of course, the reality was that they were probably going to get him to classify and then sort the books onto the shelves once he was done with this. 

Leo decided he'd had enough of working in this minimal light and muttered a spell under his breath, one intended to extend the glow a little further so that he could see more than a metre in front of him. What he got instead was a dazzling flash of light that illuminated the entire storeroom, and made him just out of his skin in the process. That really shouldn't have happened- either he'd managed to lose control, or...something down here was amplifying his magic.

Now he was more interested. He never lost control of his magic, not anymore. Now he really had to sort through all of this to find out what had done this to him, which shouldn't be too hard. There were magical sparks that came from every book, but anyone with any skill in magic past a raw power could feel the difference between a normal book and a magical tome. Powerful tomes sometimes fell off the end of the radar for him, but if his magic had been amplified then that probably meant he could use it.

Leo closed his eyes and took in a deep breath, coughing at the volume of dust. But he could feel it. A faint warmth, sort of thrumming, and it flowed through him like breeze through trees, but it warmed instead of chilled, and left a silent, calm feeling rather than disrupting all it travelled past. 

He took a step towards the gentle warmth, sure-footed despite his blindness. Opening his eyes would break the spell, he would lose his chance to find the source of it. The thrumming grew stronger with every step, every breath, and Leo could have sworn that he heard the rustling of trees around him, tasted the fresh, green air of a forest instead of the hazy dustiness that he knew he should be inhaling.

Slowly, he reached his hand out towards the source of the feeling. Warmth shot up his fingers and into his arm, and it burned. He wanted to draw his hand away, but his fingers had clutched around the spine of the tome and wouldn't let go. He wanted to scream out for help, maybe it was a cursed tome and he was going to die, but his body felt frozen all over while he burned.

And then the sensation faded away, and Leo dared to open his eyes. He was standing in almost pitch blackness, and his hand was gripped firmly around an old tome that seemed to be glowing ever so faintly. He just stared at it, and then he pulled it close to his chest and ran out of the storeroom as fast as he could. 

There were people gathered outside, staring at him in confusion. Leo stared right back at them, wondering what he'd done to attract attention. 

"We heard...noises," one of his fellows trainees said. "Sounded like some sorta monster was down there with you."

"Oh, th-there was a book," he said. "A tome. A m-magic one, and it's still glowing. I was going to sh-show it to a scholar." He kept walking, ignoring their taunts and their laughing. They didn't like him, he didn't like them, they'd take everything they could to try and put him down. He did want to stop stuttering before he got to the scholars, though. His stutter only emerged when he was particularly shaken up, as he was now. 

Leo raised one still shaking hand to knock on the office door of the friendliest scholar at the library, taking deep breaths to calm himself. When the door opened, he cleared his throat and looked up at the scholar.

"Excuse me...I was clearing out the storeroom and I, um...I touched this tome and it sort of...burned me? But I'm not hurt. It was sort of calling to me, that's why I touched it..."

"Leo," he said, looking pointedly at him, and he nodded. The scholars never remembered their names, so this was quite an achievement. "Can I see the tome?"

He nodded again and held it out. It was still slightly warm in his hands, and once he had passed it over, he saw that his hands weren't burnt at all, just covered in a thick dust. The moment the tome left his hands, it stopped glowing.

"Leo, I want you to come and sit in my office. Keep hold of Br- of this tome, I need to go and talk to the other scholars." Leo did as he was told, wondering what on earth he'd got himself into now. It was probably some rare and precious old artefact that he'd just destroyed somehow. Or he'd ruined it by touching it, seeing as now it only glowed when he was holding it.

Sitting down, he found himself unable to stop himself from opening the tome. He had to look inside. He had to see what it said. He wouldn't read any spells, though, just in case, but maybe it had something he could work out. He knew a little of the ancient language of magic, and from there he would be able to see some of the spells he could cast with it.

Before he could read a single page, though, vines shot out of the book and twined tightly around his arms, effectively binding them together. Leo let out a noise of alarm and struggled against them- more vines sprung from the book, some tying him tighter and others slinking away across the carpet of the office. Oh, gods, he'd really screwed up now. They'd kick him out for sure, and then he'd have nowhere to go. Xander wouldn't take a failure like him.

"Leo!" The scholar rushed back into his office, two others behind him. "Foolish boy, you opened it, didn't you?" Leo nodded, fearfully watching as the vines started snaking around his legs and arms. Was this stupid curse tome trying to kill him?

The three scholars rushed forward, two trying to pull the vines away and one forcing the tome shut. To Leo's tremendous relief, the vines fizzled away into green specks of light- like sunlight through trees, he thought- and he was freely able to move his arms again.

"What was that?" He had so many questions, but that seemed like the best place to start.

"That was you being foolish," one of them said immediately. "You cannot just open a tome as rare as that one! Its pages are saturated with magic, yet it is impossible to sense. Surely if you are at all intelligent you can tell that it was a bad idea."

"But I c-can sense it!" He insisted. "It's warm, and flowing, like wind flowing through trees." How could this scholar not feel it? It was as obvious as anything, the most prominent magical signal he'd ever felt, and it was entirely unique.

"Here lies the problem," said the scholar who Leo had spoken to first. "Leo described a burning feeling, said it was calling to him...he has the blood of the dusk dragon, it's entirely possible he's the next wielder of Brynhildr. Look, it even glows for him." He pulled the tome from Leo's hands and showed how it immediately lost the glow it had possessed when Leo held it.

"He doesn't have the blood of the dusk dragon," one of the scholars scoffed. "He's one of the fakes from the court wars. If he were a royal, he wouldn't be here, stuttering his way through books."

"His father is King Garon," the first scholar argued back. "That blood runs through his veins, and you know it. And seeing as he is clearly the true wielder of Brynhildr, it is our duty to contact Castle Krakenburg and tell them. I imagine they'll be wanting their prince back...perhaps he'll even be wanted at Shirasagi."

Krakenburg? They wanted him back with Xander? He hadn't seen Xander for what felt like months now, and they thought this frightening, dusty tome was Brynhildr. "But I saw Brynhildr when I was younger," he said. "It was grey, not purple."

"It changes colour when it's claimed by its rightful wielder, boy," one of the scholars said sharply. "Are you sure no one else touched it before you? It was definitely just you down there in the storeroom?" The scholar narrowed his eyes, as if utterly disbelieving that Leo would be capable of wielding Brynhildr.

"I was down there, and it was d-dark," he said. "When I left, there were other trainees standing around." They couldn't take this away from him. If he really was the wielder of the divine Brynhildr...this changed everything. He wouldn't be a forgotten prince, forced to live in the shadows of his father's cruel manner. He wouldn't be punished for something he never did. Like Xander, he would be admired as an heir to something great and wonderful.

"For gods' sakes, he's clearly the wielder." There was a reason Leo had gone to one particular scholar instead of any other. "If none of you dullards will contact the castle, I'll do it myself. Leo, you're to sit right here and not open that tome again."

Leo nodded. "I-I haven't finished in the st-storeroom. I'm sorry." If he were sent back here, he would probably be set back in his training for a month. They'd make him do boring tasks for weeks and weeks, and then he'd be behind again.

"Don't worry about the storeroom. I'll have someone else do it." The scholar ran off, the other two behind him, and Leo was left alone in a chair with a divine weapon in his hands. Oh, gods above, this was all going to turn out to be a huge mess.


	5. At Dusk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leo finds himself speaking to someone very interesting.

Two days later, Leo found himself in a carriage to Castle Krakenburg, a good few months earlier than he'd thought he would be. He'd packed a bag, been cleaned up and made to look like a prince by the scholars, and Brynhildr was tucked under his arm. It had barely left his hands since he'd first touched it- Leo had a constant paranoia that someone would take it from him if he put it down, or that it would choose someone else- because really, why would it want him? He was, as he was constantly reminded, not even worthy of the lord title that people in the court referred to him by.

And there was also a feeling...he felt like he had to keep it close. He wanted to. He knew it was a compulsion that he wasn't meant to indulge, because it was a compulsion created by dark magic. But that didn't mean he wasn't going to follow it. His unsteady speech was created by not talking to people, and that didn't mean he went out of his way to talk to people.

Xander was waiting for him at the castle, along with several armed Hoshidan soldiers. His brother stepped forwards to embrace him, bending to murmur in his ear. "The soldiers seem convinced you're going to try and mount a revolution now that you're here...I keep telling them that you won't, but just...try to seem harmless. I don't want you getting hurt." 

"I-I'm not even allowed to open the t-tome," Leo said with a frown. He wanted to open the tome in every moment he spent awake and he had dreams about opening it too, but he had control over how far dark magic could take him. Xander just looked at him sadly. He was a king now, he probably had way more important things to do than convincing his soldiers that his sixteen year old stuttering little brother wouldn't kill them all. 

"Just make an effort, Leo. Please." Xander bent to kiss his forehead like he'd used to do when Leo was little, and Leo smiled just slightly. Xander loved him, he just had a lot to deal with. He was king of a country that had to answer to Hoshido as well, and managing that couldn't be an easy task at all.

"I'll t-try," he said, hating his stutter so much in that moment. He'd come back to his brother as a figure that could finally be admired, and in appearance he lacked everything. He hated people who thought he was weak because of it. He hated people who thought they could boss him around. They thought he stuttered because he was nervous or incompetent, but it was just because his voice stumbled. He wasn't used to it. As soon as he relaxed, the stutter would go away again, but Leo had a nasty feeling that he wasn't going to be allowed to relax. 

"I'll have a servant show you to your room," Xander said. "You've, ah, moved rooms, some Hoshidan dignitaries had to stay in your old quarters. Don't worry, I had all of your belongings moved as well."

"Okay," he said, managing to keep his voice steady this time. He tucked the tome away in his cloak, out of sight as much as it could be, and pulled his bag up onto his shoulder. "Thank you for believing the scholar, Xander."

"No worries, little brother." Xander's smile was wide. "I always knew there was more for you than sitting in a library for the rest of your life."

Leo managed a smile back, standing awkwardly in place whilst Xander went to go fetch a servant. He came back with a rather odd looking man- white hair was not usual in Nohr, neither was skin that dark. "Leo, Niles will show you to your room." Xander glanced to the servant. "Please, don't misbehave. That's my brother you're dealing with."

"Of course, your highness," Niles bowed deeply to Xander as he left, leaving Leo alone with this servant who was definitely not in uniform. "Good morning, Lord Leo."

"Good morning. You're new here, aren't you? If you'll excuse me asking, where are you from? Your looks are hardly a common sight in Nohr..." Leo handed his bag over to Niles as they walked, who shouldered it with no problem at all. That left Leo both hands free to hold Brynhildr.

"No idea, my lord," Niles gave Leo a grin that made him very slightly nervous. "I believe I am from Nestra, but no guarantee there." The land of performers, and by extension, the land of spies. Neutral in the past and probably in the future, and a favourite city of Father's.

"How did you come to be here, then?" It was now that Leo realised his stutter had disappeared, and he'd never been more glad. It allowed him to make a good first impression. 

"If you must know, I tried to rob the castle with some...friends...a little while ago, and the dastards left me to face punishment alone. Luckily, as you can tell, they decided not to execute me." Niles smiled, just a little, and Leo blinked in surprise. That wasn't quite the story he'd been expecting to hear.

"My brother gave me a criminal as a servant?" He asked, and the grin on Niles' face shifted to become more of a sinister, thin smile.

"I prefer rogue, it makes me sound more charming." Leo laughed. Despite his questionable origins, he liked Niles.

"Rogue it is, then. Or perhaps outlaw? That's pretty dashing." Leo knew a dozen words synonymous with 'criminal'- that was what came of spending his life buried in books, he supposed. "It is good to see that Xander didn't decide to have you executed...you've cheered me up a little already, Niles."

"Good to hear, milord," Niles said, taking a turn away from where Leo knew the royal quarters were. "You're in the guest quarters for now, but I don't think they've been used much for a good eight years." Father used to entertain many guests at a time, and the royal rooms were reserved for his children and their mothers. Now, though, Xander liked to keep excessive spending to a minimum and only hosted many guests when it was truly necessary.

"Hmm. Okay." The guest rooms were smaller than the royal quarters, and Leo had to wonder if all of his belongings had managed to fit into one room. Niles showed him to a particular door, and Leo opened it and winced slightly at the sight of plenty of his books and other possessions stacked on the floor. Ah well, there was nothing to be done about it now. He'd have to sort it out later. "I'll be going to the library," he said. "Please let me know if my brother wants me for anything."

"Didn't you just come from a library, milord?" Niles asked, and Leo nodded. He always spent at least half of his time in Windmire at Krakenburg's library, forgoing catching up on sleep if necessary.

"The castle's library is far more interesting," Leo said firmly. "And there is no one to tell me what I can and cannot read, and no one to make me take notes on dull scientific texts written a hundred years ago."

"Sounds absolutely fascinating," Niles said, and Leo laughed at the sheer amount of sarcasm Niles managed to get into his voice. "If you prefer it here, why don't you ask to move to study at this library?"

"I can't imagine they'd want me wandering around and getting in the way all the time," Leo said, shrugging. That was the only reason he didn't study here- well, that, and the fact that it had never even occurred to him as a possibility. Even if it had, he probably wouldn't be wanted as a scholar here, especially due to his ties to the late king. Other than Xander, Hoshido wanted to get rid of all the remnants of Garon that were left in the kingdom.

"I don't know much about studying, so I can't help you," Niles said. "I can't even read all that well, if I'm being honest with you."

"You can't read very well?" Leo frowned. "Where were you raised that never taught you to read?"

"By a mother that never wanted me, and then by street criminals," Niles said flatly. "I was just as much of a rat as any of them."

"I see," Leo said. Well, now he just had to find a book that he'd owned for a long time. A very long time. "Well, I'll just have to teach you to, then."

"My- my lord?" Niles looked surprised. Had he not been offered an education already? Why on earth not? Xander had mentioned in one of his initial addresses to court that he wanted to improve Nohrian levels of literacy.

"What?" Leo frowned at him. "I won't have any servant of mine being even slightly illiterate. I need you to be able to read with me and compare opinions on whatever book I happen to be reading." That was a lie, of course. Niles wasn't going to be his servant for very long at all, only until he was moved on to somewhere else for someone else to deal with. He would also read much faster than any servant ever did, at least if said servant was doing their work properly.

"You're awfully kind, milord." Niles looked down at his feet, hiding whatever expression lingered on his face. "Is there anything else that you need me to do for you, or may I take my leave?" He looked up again, a rather mischievous glint in his eye. "For such a kind master, I'd gladly do anything that was wanted of me...anything."

"I'm afraid I don't understand you, Niles. I believe you have something in mind, but I cannot think of what it is." Leo knew exactly what Niles was getting at, but he knew that people like him took no joy from crude remarks if their efforts gained no response. "Would you care to explain?" He smiled in the way that Camilla used to call cute, hoping it looked innocent.

"Lord Leo, you're killing me," Niles said, clearly only trying to give the impression he was being serious. He wasn't fooling anyone. "I simply offered to do anything you wanted. Whatever that may entail. I don't know what you had on your mind-" he paused here to smirk. "But I'll put it down to rampant teenage hormones."

"Excuse me?" He asked. He'd have Niles know that he was far too undernourished to have rampant hormones. Only vaguely active ones that meant he'd grown a little. "I feel I should remind you of your place, Niles."

"My apologies." Niles inclined his head slightly. "Would you like me to get on my knees and beg for forgiveness? Or perhaps those rampant teenage hormones would rather I did something else while I was down there..." 

Leo was really starting to see why Xander had felt the need to tell Niles to behave. Not that it seemed to have had much effect. "I believe my brother, the king," it didn't hurt to remind them every so often, "told you that you should behave."

"I am only following the standard you set, milord." That was complete nonsense. Niles had started this whole mess of innuendo- hadn't he? Leo was just some innocent bystander who had ended up caught up in it all. He narrowed his eyes, shooting a Look at Niles.

"I'm going to the library," He said. He refused to be played around with any longer. It just made him angry.


	6. A Glimpse of Light

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leo has to prove that he is the true wielder of Brynhildr.

Leo spent barely an hour in the library before Xander found him and told him that he was needed. Apparently he'd contacted Hoshido, and they'd demanded that he give a demonstration of Brynhildr's powers to the Hoshidan dignitaries currently in the castle before any more formal arrangements were made.

Leo was very quick to protest. "It's dangerous!" He argued. "I can't just show them. It nearly strangled me the last time I opened it, and I wasn't even trying to cast!"

"I'm sorry, Leo," Xander said. "Unless you want me to take the tome and send you back to the library in disgrace, you will have to try." Why was Xander so reasonable and hard to argue with? Leo knew that his brother was right, but he couldn't shake the fear that something terrible would happen if he opened the tome.

"Fine." He let himself be led down the corridor, biting at his lip all the way. He didn't want to do this, but he had to. Maybe it would be okay, and Brynhildr would listen to him this time. He just had to tell it what to do instead of letting it truss him up like an animal.

When he reached the area Xander wanted him to show Brynhildr, an old garden area that was barely used or even maintained, there were five people standing there in the bright red colour that represented Hoshido. They stained their clothes with the blood of all the Nohrians they had slaughtered in their war of conquest. 

"Lord Leo has agreed to demonstrate the powers of the tome," Xander announced. He stepped off to the side to join the Hoshidans, motioning for Leo to stay where he was. "Leo, whenever you're ready..."

Leo closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He could feel the magic inside the tome calling to him, telling him to open it, and he tried to control that urge so he could open it on his own terms. The magic was warm and rushing as always, and when he opened it, it immediately rushed into his body. He tried to focus on the power, not letting it flow out, and then he opened his eyes so he could read a spell from it.

As it turned out, he needed not even speak for his intentions to become clear to Brynhildr. Flowers blossomed from the ground around him, sweet at first, then growing tall, a good six feet- they still didn't stop, stems growing thicker, twisting and sprouting thorns. Leo figured that was probably enough of a demonstration, so he shut the tome again and the flowers melted away into specks of green light.

There was silence from the Hoshidans, and from Xander, but when he looked over, each held a stunned look on their faces. Leo bit his lip, trying to control his nervousness. There was no need for him to ruin it all by looking weak now. That seemed like it was an impressive display. It was certainly nothing he'd ever seen before in a spell.

"Well." Xander broke the silence with a single word, and then settled forward to rest a hand on Leo's shoulder. "I should think that settles it. He's clearly the true wielder. I shall contact Hoshido and let them know the good news."

Leo tried to smile up at Xander, but he quickly started to feel exhausted. He hadn't channelled that much magic ever, honestly. He hadn't even known that he held that much magic within his body. He'd always been told that his small body meant he could well be at a disadvantage, but that never seemed to be the case.

"Leo, are you alright?" Xander frowned at him. "Hold on...I'll call Niles to take you back to your room and bring you some food...speaking of food, you look undernourished. I'll be making sure you eat plenty here in Windmire."

Leo nodded, tucking Brynhildr under his arm. He hoped no one else had seen that display, now he thought about it, because Xander had been worried enough already about what the servants and soldiers thought. He looked up, but he couldn't see anyone at the windows. They would have scattered by now anyway.

Niles appeared within minutes of being called, his face held in an obviously forced neutral expression. "Niles, there you are. Take Leo to his room, and fetch him some food. Plenty of it- soup, and bread. Do you still like tomato soup, Leo? I know it was your favourite as a child..." Xander smiled fondly, clearly lost in memory for a brief moment. Leo nodded, because he still adored tomato soup and he hadn't had it for months.

Xander smiled at him just before he left. "I'm proud of you, Leo. I know you've always loved magic, and I'm sure there is a bright future coming for you now." Then he left, leaving Leo alone with his own personal tormentor while he was too tired to even open his mouth.

"So little Lord Leo has magic now?" Niles smirked at him, resting an arm just a little too low on Leo's back under the pretence of guiding him inside. "How special. Another reason for people to fawn over you, I suppose. As if there weren't enough reasons already."

Leo could only stay silent as they walked through the suspiciously empty corridors back to his new room. Large amounts of magic really took it out of him, especially seeing as he hadn't eaten for...a while. He couldn't exactly remember when he'd last been able to eat a full meal.

"Not talking? Hmm...can't bear the likes of lowly servants like me?" Niles' hand slid just a little lower, and Leo wished he had the energy to do more than shoot a murderous glare at the man. "Oh, showing a little spirit? That's more like it...you know, I saw your little display with the flowers out there. I wonder, what would it be like if you used your tome to tie a person up? I bet it would hurt..." Niles sounded awfully gleeful about the concept of that, which somehow wasn't as surprising as it should have been.

Leo desperately wanted to throw Niles off and kick him out of the castle. He could open Brynhildr and teach him a lesson, but he was pretty sure that if he did that, he would faint, and he was completely alone here. Maybe that was why Niles had decided to come this way, where no one would be.

Thankfully, Niles kept hid mouth shut and didn't move his hand any lower until they got back to Leo's room. Leo stepped away from the servant as soon as he could, shooting him another very tired glare. "Go...get me some food, like...like Xander ordered," he managed to say.

"And you're definitely in a position to order me around," he said, his voice dripping with loathing. However, he followed the order and quickly left the room, leaving Leo to collapse on the bed that was much harder than normal. It was, however, a surface to rest on, and that was all he needed right now. 

Niles came back about ten minutes later with several bread rolls and a large bowl of soup, not bothering to knock before entering the room. "As your dear brother ordered, milord. I promise I haven't spat in the soup, even I'm not that low of a person."

Leo took it without a smile nor any indication of thanks. Niles didn't deserve anything like that after what he'd done. His guiding bordered on sexual assault, and that wasn't something that gained much respect, at least not in Leo's books. Maybe some people liked to have relationships with their servants, particularly their male, attractive servants, but Leo wasn't into that kind of thing. There was no time for fooling around when there was studying to be done. 

Niles just sat and watched whilst he ate, which was rather offputting. His darker skin made that single blue eye stand out rather too much, so Leo was acutely aware of it watching his every move. It was only when he was finally finished wiping the last of the soup from his bowl using the bread he'd been given that Niles finally spoke again. "For someone who is a prince, you eat more like a homeless man given his first meal in years. Why is that?"

"I'm not a prince," Leo said. He may have the blood of his late father running through his veins, but as he was illegitimate as an heir to the throne, the Hoshidans had stripped him of the right to inherit the throne. Maybe they'd reinstate it now he'd proved himself.

"Hmm. That's not what I was told." Niles stepped closer, clearly curious. "I was told you were Xander's brother, which would surely make you a prince by birthright. And I was told you've been off studying at the greatest library in Nohr...I bet they treated you like a prince there, didn't they?"

Leo just scoffed. If he was treated as a prince, there were a good fifty princes at Macarath, and half of them were the servants for the scholars. "I'm Xander's half brother. His mother died...five years before I was b-born." His voice was starting to shake slightly. He hoped Niles hadn't noticed. 

"That still didn't answer my other question." Niles stepped even closer, bending suddenly to pick up one of Leo's hands. Leo flinched, tried to pull away, but Niles held firm. "Hmm. Your hands are rough, dirty...you're far too thin, as well. They didn't treat you like a prince at all, did they?"

"I'm a scholar, n-not a prince," he insisted. He wished he was treated more like a prince. It would certainly be nice to have that. It would make studying easier if he wasn't the equivalent of a slave, barely fed with little time to sleep. He'd be much better if he was healthy, but as it stood his body was weak and he doubted it would ever fully heal. 

"Hmm. You don't look like a scholar, you look like a slave." Niles dropped his hand, stepped back a little. "Which makes it all the more remarkable that the only sign of your troubles is that unfortunate little stutter you've picked up. It's quite cute, really."

Leo pulled his hand close to his chest, as far away from Niles as he could get it. "Leave me," he said sharply. He didn't want the pity of a criminal who was only here because of Xander's sense of charity. He didn't want to be flirted with, either. He wasn't here to flirt, he was here to gain recognition of his bloodline.

"As you wish, Lord Leo." Niles stepped back, and went as far as to incline his head in a slight bow. "I wouldn't dream of troubling you, after all..." There was a definite smirk on his face as he walked out of the room, and Leo turned to glare at his retreating back. That man unnerved him. Deeply.

Once he was gone, Leo allowed himself to relax and close his eyes. There was a bread roll left, but he wasn't hungry anymore. He was disgusted by the behaviour of the servant Xander had assigned him and he didn't think he'd be able to eat more just yet. He wasn't used to having that much food to eat in a single sitting anyway.

He couldn't stop thinking about what Niles had said to him, though. Something in the certainty with which he'd spoken, the ease with which he'd seen the marks of work on Leo's hands...it made him curious as to what the man's past had been like. Leo didn't want to ask him, though. He likely wouldn't get a straight answer.

He sighed. There was no point trying to figure all of this out now. He was exhausted, and he'd feel much better in the morning once he'd had first full night of sleep in a long time.

**Author's Note:**

> If you like this, please don't forget to drop a comment for us :) comments are a great motivation to continue a piece of writing and are much appreciated.


End file.
